Officers located the suspects with help from a “tipster” who saw news reports about the shooting, police said. A fourth suspect was still free on Wednesday and is considered armed and dangerous. (Bt Bill Miller)

October 22, 2012

Federal agents are investigating whether a Hurst attorney was the intended target of an arsonist who threw incendiary devices into the building where she offices.

Attorney Ginger Weatherspoon said Monday that she believes she was the intended target behind the weekend fire and that investigators have already begun questioning people connected with cases that she is working.

"It will shake you up but I do a lot of family law and family law is crazy," Weatherspoon said. "I told my staff it's like being in the Pelican Brief. It's like being in a John Grisham novel."

October 03, 2012

A Decatur man who was facing a misdemeanor weapons charge left a death threat for a Wise County prosecutor on a wall and set a fire in a bathroom in the Wise County Courthouse last month, according to the Wise County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities say the suspect, Johnny Pippin Jr., 26, had his 9-month-old child with him at the time. He remained in the Wise County Jail Wednesday with bail set at $1 million.

About 50 school employees joined a company that specializes in fire clean-up, working all weekend to ensure the building would be ready for classes, said Richie Escovedo, a spokesman with the Mansfield school district.

The boys’ restroom was still unusable Monday, but Escovedo estimated it would be open again at about mid-week.

January 11, 2012

A pre-trial hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 19 in the case of Jeffery Allan Maxwell, accused of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping of a former Parker County neighbor. Authorities say Maxwell kidnapped the woman, burned down her house, then held her captive for 13 days. In what Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler described as a "house of horrors" in Corsicana, Maxwell tortured the woman, until sheriff's investigators and Texas Rangers rescued her, authorities say. The pre-trial hearing is in the 43rd Judicial District Court of Judge Trey Loftin. Trial is set for February. According to Parker County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain, if convicted Maxwell faces five to 99 years in prison or life and up to a $10,000 fine for aggravated kidnapping. - Lance Winter

September 02, 2011

Steven Scott Cantrell, of Crane pleaded guilty Friday to hate crime charges stemming from a series of racially-motivated arsons in December 2010, the Justice Department has announced. Cantrell admitted to setting the Dec. 28 fire at the predominantly African-American Faith in Christ Church as part of an unsuccessful effort to murder a disabled African-American man he saw passing by the church in his wheelchair, federal officials said. Cantrell also admitted setting fire to the house of another man he thought was Jewish; and to a gym because he thought the owners served Mexican-Americans. He set the fires to gain status with the Aryan Brotherhood, according to the Justice Department. He is to be sentenced Nov. 30 and faces up to life in prison.